Clutch Tech Notes
I did not intend this section to be a step by step on how to swap a clutch. It is intended to be some helpful tips for those of you courageous enough to do this in your garage. Read the entire thing, and have a Chiltons manual or a FSM on hand to assist you with pictures. I may have forgotten some things since it has been about a month.
What you need
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Start by chocking the wheels, and jacking the front of the vehicle about 1 foot off the ground.
Disconnect the battery. Remove the battery, battery hold downs, and battery tray.
Remove your intake (or factory airbox and piping)
Remove all wiring harnesses vent tubes, and linkage from the tranny.
Locate the clutch master and slave cylinder on the bell housing towards the front of the car.
DO NOT UNHOOK THE LINES TO THE MASTER AND SLAVE. Doing so will make it necessary to bleed the system.
Remove the two nuts holding the bracket onto the bell housing.
Twist the slave cylinder 1/3 turn to remove it from the bell housing.
Attack the plastic pushrod retainer to the slave cylinder body. DO NOT DEPRESS THE CLUTCH PEDAL WHILE THE SLAVE CYLINDER IS REMOVED. Doing so will cause slave cylinder failure, and they are about $200 from the Saturn Retailer.
Tie the Slave Cylinder out of the way.
Remove the front wheels.
Remove the front brake calipers from the brackets. (DO NOT DISCONNECT THE BRAKE LINES)
Hang the calipers out of the way.
Use a 30mm socket to loosen the axle nut in the center of the hub.
Remove the kotter pin from the tie rod end nut, then remove the nut. Use the ball joint separator to free the tie rod end from the knuckle. Swing the tie rod out of the way, and replace the nut on the rod end.
Remove the kotter pin and castle nut from the lower control arm ball joint. Loosen the nut as far as possible. You should be able to loosen the nut entirely, but not remove it. Use the ball joint separator to loosen the ball joint from the knuckle. Then use the large pry bar to put pressure on the lower control arm. You should be able to remove the nut fully and move the knuckle to the side. Gently release pressure on the control arm. The steering knuckle, and strut assembly should be hanging from the strut tower.
If the axle will not freely slip out of the hub, you may need to place the 30mm socket back over the nut, and whack it with a hammer. This should free the axle to slide out of the hub.
While supporting the drivers side strut assembly from the bottom of the vehicle, remove the strut tower mounting nuts. Lower the strut assembly out of the vehicle, and place in a safe place. The spring is under pressure, so be careful when handling it. The passenger side strut does not need to be removed.
Remove the lower splash shields from both front wheel wells.
Drain the transmission.
Grasp the drivers side axle near where it exits the transmission. Give it a good pull. The axle is retained in the tranny by a c-clip. You may need to use a small prybar to give you some leverage.
Once you feel the axle begin to slide out, support it. Pull it straight out carefully. You don't want to damage the seals. Lay the axle in a safe place.
Repeat this process on the passenger side.
Once both axles have been removed, slide under the vehicle (you have it on jackstands RIGHT?) and locate the intermediate shaft coming out of the passenger side of the tranny. It is held to the engine block by a bracket with three bolts. The top one also secures a bracket to the bottom of the intake manifold.
Remove all three bolts. Then loosen the bolt on the bracket under the intake manifold. This will allow you to move it far enough to swing the intermediate shaft bracket down.
Pull the intermediate shaft out of the tranny being careful not to damage the seals. Set it in a safe place.
Look inside the drivers side wheel well and locate the mount holding the tranny to the powertrain cradle. Remove the two bolts from the side of the mount, then the nut under the mount securing it to the cradle.
Now you need to support the engine. Get out a trusty floor jack. DO NOT use one of those cheesy jacks that come with the car. You are going to be doing some wiggling and pulling, and it would be nice if your engine didn't fall of the jack.
Place a flat piece of wood between the jack and the oil pan. Jack it up high enough to put pressure on the oil pan, but do not actually lift the vehicle. You must be careful not to distort the oil pan. You just need enough pressure to allow you to remove the drivers side transmission mount.
Now you must unbolt the bell housing from the engine block. It will take some effort to remove the bolts if you have an older car. Electrolysis between the aluminum cases and the steel bolts has caused them to corrode in place. Use a breaker bar, or impact wrench, but be careful not to sheer a bolt.
Remove the three bolts from the inspection plate.
Now comes the tricky part. After you have checked that all wires hoses and bolts attached to the tranny have been removed, grab a friend. You will need to pull the tranny back from the engine until the input shaft slides out of the clutch. You will need to twist it to allow the differential to clear the cradle. Then set the tranny down on the cradle.
Unbolt the pressure plate from the flywheel. Then lift it off of the locating pins. The friction disc should come right off with it.
Get the coarsest emerycloth or sandpaper you can find. Clean off the area on the flywheel where the friction disc rubs.
If you have a runout gauge, now would be a good time to check the flywheel for warpage. If the flywheel is out of spec. or if it has any gouges in it then you will have to get it surfaced by a machine shop. If there is nothing wrong with it, then don't even bother removing it.
Once you have cleaned off the flywheel with sandpaper you can blast it with some brake cleaner to get any residue off. After this, do not touch it. Allow it to dry.
Take your clutch alignment tool, and place it in the engine where the input shaft goes. Now slide your friction disc onto the alignment tool. Place the pressure plate over the friction disc with the alignment tool in place. (No alignment tool? Click Here)
Once the pressure plate is properly located on the pins on the flywheel, start the bolts. Tighten them in steps. Until you finally reach the specified torque.
Remove the release fork, and slide out the throwout bearing. Replace it with your new one.
Snap the fork back into the bell housing.
Remove the alignment tool.
Now maneuver the tranny back into place. You are halfway done.
Bolt the tranny back to the engine. Reconnect all sensors, and the shift linkage.
Put everything back together the reverse of removal.
When reinstalling the axles into the tranny, be careful not to damage the seals.
When reinstalling the castle nuts on the steering knuckle, use new kotter pins.
After you get everything reinstalled, and lower the car to the ground. Start the engine. With the parking brake on, pump the brake pedal until it is firm.
Next pump the clutch pedal and observe for anything strange. If you installed a Dual Friction, you will immediately notice that the pedal is MUCH lighter. Don't worry, this is normal.
Take it for a test drive.
Now comes the really hard part. Take it easy until the clutch is broken in. This is usually about 500 miles of normal stop and go driving. (no that doesn't mean a 500 mile road trip and you are done) This gives the friction disc a chance to properly bed against the flywheel and pressure plate.
I hope this helped. If I missed anything, or you have a faster way of doing it, drop me an e-mail.
